C.S & Co (C. Shand & Co)
< 1875 - Galle

SPECIFICATIONS Denomination Half Alloy Brass Diameter 23 mm Thickness  mm Weight 3.50 gms Shape round Edge Plain DieAxis O° Issue
Lowsley #31 Pridmore #89

Obv. :	C.S&C O.	within a beaded circle inside raised rim.
Rev. :	GALLE	within a beaded circle inside raised rim.

See also the P.S token and S.S token of the same firm.

This copper token is rather larger than a farthing. It is well struck and of English mintage. It represented the usual price paid for picking half a bag of clean coffee. It was used by C. Shand & Co., until they became bankrupt in 1875, after the failure of Alexander Collie & Co., of Manchester.

C SHAND & Co. The initials on these tokens were identified by Lowsley (No. 31).
Charles Shand, a nephew of Sir William Reid who was the proprietor of Spring Valley, Badulla, came to Ceylon on the advice of his uncle and he, along with a J.L.R. Shand, took up coffee planting at Spring Valley. From 1845 to 1849 their names appear as planters. After this date Charles appears to have commenced business as a merchant in Colombo with the name C. Shand & Co. The other partner being J.L.R. Shand. In 1853 his name appears as the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce.
Lowsley relates that they became bankrupt in 1875 after the failure of Alexander Collie & Co. of Manchester. It has not been possible to establish if the firm had an office in Galle, nor has it been possible to identify the meaning of the initials P.S. and S.S. which occur on two other tokens issued by them.

Reference
* Coins and Tokens of Ceylon, Lieut. Col B. Lowsley, Num. Chron. Sr III Vol. XV, 1895.
* The Coins of British Commonwealth of Nations to the end of the reign of George VI 1952 Part 2 - Asian Territories by F. Pridmore Spink & Son Ltd., 1965. Tokens

The token was scanned at 600 dpi and the images are displayed at 250 dpi.
I thank Dr Srilal Fernando in Australia, for the scans of this token from his father: Late C. S. G. Fernando's collection.